diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c1604ed6e20f..1e457867e246 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 
 ### Features
 
+* [\#9776](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/9776) Add flag `staking-bond-denom` to specify the staking bond denomination value when initializing a new chain.
 * [\#9533](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/9533) Added a new gRPC method, `DenomOwners`, in `x/bank` to query for all account holders of a specific denomination.
 * (bank) [\#9618](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/9618) Update bank.Metadata: add URI and URIHash attributes.
 * [\#9750](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/9750) Emit events for tx signature and sequence, so clients can now query txs by signature (`tx.signature='<base64_sig>'`) or by address and sequence combo (`tx.acc_seq='<addr>/<seq>'`).
diff --git a/x/genutil/client/cli/init.go b/x/genutil/client/cli/init.go
index 8a7d85059cb3..87d1223f802e 100644
--- a/x/genutil/client/cli/init.go
+++ b/x/genutil/client/cli/init.go
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
-	"github.com/cosmos/go-bip39"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config"
@@ -23,6 +22,8 @@ import (
 	sdk "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types"
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types/module"
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/x/genutil"
+	stakingtypes "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/x/staking/types"
+	"github.com/cosmos/go-bip39"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -31,6 +32,9 @@ const (
 
 	// FlagSeed defines a flag to initialize the private validator key from a specific seed.
 	FlagRecover = "recover"
+
+	// FlagStakingBondDenom defines a flag to specify the staking token in the genesis file.
+	FlagStakingBondDenom = "staking-bond-denom"
 )
 
 type printInfo struct {
@@ -114,12 +118,32 @@ func InitCmd(mbm module.BasicManager, defaultNodeHome string) *cobra.Command {
 			genFile := config.GenesisFile()
 			overwrite, _ := cmd.Flags().GetBool(FlagOverwrite)
 
+			stakingBondDenom, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString(FlagStakingBondDenom)
+
 			if !overwrite && tmos.FileExists(genFile) {
 				return fmt.Errorf("genesis.json file already exists: %v", genFile)
 			}
-			appState, err := json.MarshalIndent(mbm.DefaultGenesis(cdc), "", " ")
+
+			appGenState := mbm.DefaultGenesis(cdc)
+
+			if stakingBondDenom != "" {
+				stakingRaw := appGenState[stakingtypes.ModuleName]
+				var stakingGenesis stakingtypes.GenesisState
+				err := clientCtx.Codec.UnmarshalJSON(stakingRaw, &stakingGenesis)
+				if err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+				stakingGenesis.Params.BondDenom = stakingBondDenom
+				modifiedStakingStr, err := clientCtx.Codec.MarshalJSON(&stakingGenesis)
+				if err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+				appGenState[stakingtypes.ModuleName] = modifiedStakingStr
+			}
+
+			appState, err := json.MarshalIndent(appGenState, "", " ")
 			if err != nil {
-				return errors.Wrap(err, "Failed to marshall default genesis state")
+				return errors.Wrap(err, "Failed to marshal default genesis state")
 			}
 
 			genDoc := &types.GenesisDoc{}
@@ -152,6 +176,7 @@ func InitCmd(mbm module.BasicManager, defaultNodeHome string) *cobra.Command {
 	cmd.Flags().BoolP(FlagOverwrite, "o", false, "overwrite the genesis.json file")
 	cmd.Flags().Bool(FlagRecover, false, "provide seed phrase to recover existing key instead of creating")
 	cmd.Flags().String(flags.FlagChainID, "", "genesis file chain-id, if left blank will be randomly created")
+	cmd.Flags().String(FlagStakingBondDenom, "", "genesis file staking bond denomination, if left blank default value is 'stake'")
 
 	return cmd
 }
diff --git a/x/genutil/client/cli/init_test.go b/x/genutil/client/cli/init_test.go
index b64d792c29fc..fd8427988edf 100644
--- a/x/genutil/client/cli/init_test.go
+++ b/x/genutil/client/cli/init_test.go
@@ -118,6 +118,30 @@ func TestInitRecover(t *testing.T) {
 	require.NoError(t, cmd.ExecuteContext(ctx))
 }
 
+func TestInitStakingBondDenom(t *testing.T) {
+	home := t.TempDir()
+	logger := log.NewNopLogger()
+	cfg, err := genutiltest.CreateDefaultTendermintConfig(home)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	serverCtx := server.NewContext(viper.New(), cfg, logger)
+	interfaceRegistry := types.NewInterfaceRegistry()
+	marshaler := codec.NewProtoCodec(interfaceRegistry)
+	clientCtx := client.Context{}.
+		WithCodec(marshaler).
+		WithLegacyAmino(makeCodec()).
+		WithHomeDir(home)
+
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, client.ClientContextKey, &clientCtx)
+	ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, server.ServerContextKey, serverCtx)
+
+	cmd := genutilcli.InitCmd(testMbm, home)
+
+	cmd.SetArgs([]string{"appnode-test", fmt.Sprintf("--%s=%s --%s=testtoken", cli.HomeFlag, home, genutilcli.FlagStakingBondDenom)})
+	require.NoError(t, cmd.ExecuteContext(ctx))
+}
+
 func TestEmptyState(t *testing.T) {
 	home := t.TempDir()
 	logger := log.NewNopLogger()